SIC TV has suspended its new “Dolphins with the Stars” celebrity series following legal threats by animal activists.
The show was meant to start shooting today (Tuesday May 19) but the station announced its 11th hour decision saying it had received “negative feedback” from both the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forestry (ICNF) and the veterinary authority (DGAV).
Hours before, SIC heard that animal rights party PAN was also on the case – planning an injunction to prevent them filming wild animals in a way that was bound to cause “stress”.
SIC has said it will be “analyzing” the negative feedback, and deciding “in due course” whether or not to go ahead with the show.
The basis of the series was to present celebrity duos, working with dolphins “and learning how to pull off striking performances in the water”.
The idea was that the celebrities would pitch against each other so that judges had to choose the winning duo.
But as PAN points out, this would put Zoomarine’s dolphins under intense stress.
The show “would demand many intense hours of preparation” with dolphins effectively being “trained by people who don’t know them or their daily routine.”
PAN also claimed the dolphins’ “health and well-being” would be at risk as they would have more “confinement and discomfort” than they were already used to.
